


Lying on Bad Wolf Beach

by Skyler10



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Matchmaker TARDIS, Pregnancy, Tropes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-21 07:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3683580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose lies to the Doctor at Bad Wolf Bay, the TARDIS grants one last wish and Jackie Tyler gets the birthday surprise of a lifetime.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rose Lies on the Beach

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t always mess with canon, but when I do, it’s to play trope Bingo and make puns with the title. Enjoy!

Even in her dream, Rose could remember the rebellion in his eyes as he said his vows to her. It was all so “wrong”: she was born an ordinary human, she had hints of the Time Vortex in her altered DNA, she couldn’t even speak his native tongue. Yet, here they stood at the altar, knowing that nothing could be more right.   
  
Besides the rings they wore, and her room falling into disuse, nothing really changed in the months that followed. Running, aliens, time and space… all conquered with wit and a sonic screwdriver.  
  
Then Rose found herself screaming familiar words, this time pounding at a white wall instead of the TARDIS console. This time there was no Bad Wolf to become. This time there was no way back to him.  
  
She awoke with a start, breathing heavily as the tears streaked down her cheeks. The first few weeks, she had cried herself to sleep. Now, she cried herself awake, haunted by the nightmares. Except they weren’t just nightmares. They were memories.  
  
She made her way to the en suite. Her hand brushed the counter and knocked something to the ground.  
  
The test.  
  
The fifth positive test she had taken in as many days, if the one at Torchwood’s med unit qualified.  
  
And for something like this, it most certainly did. She felt sick to her stomach and it wasn’t all the baby’s fault.  
  
God. The baby. Right now, she was carrying a half-Gallifreyan, half-human baby. The reality hadn’t quite sunk in.  
  
The next night she heard the Doctor call her name.  
  
“Mmhm?” she mumbled, before realizing she wasn’t on the TARDIS, in bed with her husband. She was alone, so very alone, at her parents’ mansion in another universe.  
  
“Doctor?”  
  
_“ROSE,”_ she felt him speak through their mental link. _“It’s me. Follow the TARDIS’s signal.”_  
  
Norway. He led her to bloody Norway.  
  
“There’s five of us now,” she told him, bracing herself for the news she was about to deliver. “Mum, Pete, Mickey, me and the baby.”  
  
“You’re not?”  


 

> _How could she lie to him? She was so ready with the lie: it was Mum, not her. Rose couldn’t be. He had said it wasn’t possible. He didn't think they were genetically compatible like that. He would believe her._  
>    
> _But as she stared into his vulnerable expression, speaking three little words his lips couldn’t seem to form, she knew she would regret it forever if she didn’t tell him. If she could never see him again, he had to know the truth._  
>    
> _She nodded a silent “yes” and bit her lip, eyes never leaving his. She had to make sure he understood._  
>    
> _“Oh.” He dropped his gaze and glanced over to Mickey. “That’s…”_  
>    
> _“Doctor,” she exhaled as the damn tears began. “I know you can’t be here to be a proper father, but I thought you should know. And this way, well… Domestic and all that, right? But…”_  
>    
> _He cut her off, wonder written all over his face._  
>    
> _“Ours? We are having a baby, Rose?”_  
>    
> _“Yeah.” She beamed at his awe. “I’m so, so glad I got to tell you.”_

  
  
She woke up in her hotel bed furious at herself. Wishing that was the story of how she had acted today. Wishing she hadn’t lied to him. Wishing she hadn’t claimed the baby was her mum’s. She told herself he wouldn’t have become a madman and torn both universes apart, as she had feared. He would have found a way back, not given up, but he wouldn’t risk the stability of the multiverse if he couldn’t succeed, even for their family.  
  
Instead, she stood on that beach and lied to him. As he had lied to her so many times to protect her. Now it was her turn to protect him. She loved him too much to make him live on for centuries, regeneration after regeneration, knowing he could never meet his own child, carrying the guilt of not only their separation but of assigning her the burden of single motherhood as well. Of course, she had her family, and Mickey, who was already like a brother to her and would make a wonderful father figure for her baby, but the Doctor would never have had peace with that.  
  
She moved to the window to look out at the beach, catching her reflection in the glass. The corners of her lips turned up in rueful acknowledgement of how well she could predict her alien husband. There were so many details of his heritage and past lives that remained a mystery to her, but his mannerisms, personality, thoughts… those she had painstakingly memorized after his change. Years ago, she resolved to know the new him inside and out as much as she could, however long he lasted in that form. And was prepared to start over again with the next, if need be. She was prepared for an unusual, sometimes difficult, but completely-worth-it forever with him. She was not prepared for forever without him.  
  
At least she had part of him, a voice in her heart whispered into the dark night. She had a life growing inside her to love and protect and adore. And she would, oh, she would. If this baby couldn’t have a father, she would be twice the mother to make up for it.  
  
\-----  
  
In the months that followed these late night resolutions in a Nordic hotel room, she would find herself daydreaming about how she would tell her half-alien child about his or her origins, about the Doctor, about their adventures. She sorted stories into age-appropriateness, into what would isolate them from others, into what fit in with their “official” history.  
  
According to the technology in the Torchwood med unit, she was having a boy. A boy with one heart, but extraordinary DNA. The physicians were giddy with delight at his potential. Only because she had grown to trust them personally, Rose promised them at least one well-child check a year so they could keep a watch on his development. Otherwise, he was to be treated as any other human kid.  
  
Instead of letting her anxieties devour her, she planned. As her second trimester drew to a close, she threw herself into nesting. She would stay at the mansion for now, knowing she would need all the help she could get if she was to stay on at Torchwood. And Torchwood offered her frontline access to research on the wall between dimensions. She wasn’t the only one obsessed with the theory of inter-dimensional travel. The brightest minds at the Institute had taken every morsel of knowledge she was able to feed them. They were putting it to use by developing plans for a cannon, not a weapon, but one to shoot people through the Void to the other side. They had even conducted a few tests against the barrier. Nothing to cause damage, but enough to study its strength and resilience. All strictly academic, of course, but in case the wall was ever breached, Torchwood would be ready.  
  
Today, however, she was far from the complex physics of a theoretical way home. Today, she was sorting tiny blue clothes from her baby shower. The Americans at the office thought it a travesty that baby showers weren’t more popular in London and quickly organized one for the boss’s daughter, the beautiful young widow of the hero who helped save them from Lumic’s Cybermen years ago.  
  
She’d even fallen to accepting such a quick explanation of herself when it came to complete strangers. It was so much easier for everyone to see her story as a romantic tragedy that she let them all — the press, the fellow expectant mothers in her birth classes, the inquiring rich couples at Vitex events and anyone else who felt inclined — infer what they would about the ring on her finger and her missing man. It was certainly much better than the alternative — that he had willingly left her alone and pregnant.  
  
Neither of which was the case, of course. She had lied. He was gone forever. What did it matter that he was still alive somewhere else if he was dead to their family?  
  
_Everything!_ Her heart shouted. She drifted a finger down a onesie covered in stars and planets. The Doctor wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. He was out there saving entire civilizations and races. And she had complete faith in him still, after all the mourning she had done, that if there was a way back to her, he would find it.  
  
She sighed as she folded the last of the gifts and placed them neatly in the drawer. It was time to get ready for her mother’s birthday party. Pete was throwing her a glitzy dinner and dance, which Rose suspected (but never voiced) was his way of making up for his first Jackie’s horribly thwarted “39th” birthday. If it were any other event, she would have skipped out for more reasons than she could count on her puffy fingers. But not with all her mum had done to help her and would be doing very soon.  
  
Rose pulled herself up slow and steady, the effort making her dread the hassle of the elegant evening. This party couldn’t be over soon enough.


	2. The Doctor Lies on the Beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The TARDIS shows just how much she loves the Doctor when she grants his greatest wish. Then luck decides to throw him a bone or two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hang on tight for this one. Part 3 will be full of fluffy candyfloss squee-ness, I promise!

The Doctor kicked the base of the console in frustration. The answer was obvious. Go back to the day he lost her and jump through the void to the other side. The TARDIS had fallen through before. Surely, surely, just once he could make that mistake again now that he needed it?

But the ship wouldn’t let him. He tried various locations, from other planets, from deep space… nothing. It always took him back to the same place. The Powell Estate. After several failed attempts, he took the hint. He went inside and grabbed a few mementos: Rose’s baby blanket she firmly denied sleeping with until she was 10, some photo albums, the paper crown she kept from their first Christmas. He left these items in her room on the TARDIS, an offering on the altar of Bad Wolf. His exhaustion-fueled prayer rang out through the sentient ship: “Please!” He begged until he fell asleep, knees on the ground, head on hands on unmade bed.

He awoke with a jolt. The previously lit room was dark as midnight, which didn’t help as the ship rocked him into her nightstand. He grabbed for purchase and her beloved snow globe crashed to the ground, eerie notes of the internal music box sounding from the bottom. Red lights illuminated his path down the halls as he raced to steady the ship.

He felt the TARDIS whine in his mind, his telepathy whirring to catch her meaning.

It was time. Time for what? For him to let Rose go? For him to move on? But what’s with the dramatic show?

No, the ship answered. Time for a new adventure.

“What new adventure? What’s with the dramatics? Can’t you just stop by a new galaxy instead of tossing about?”

The TARDIS didn’t answer. She landed herself and the display flickered on.

It was THE day. The day he had closed the walls between dimensions, separating himself from his wife forever. He remembered how badly he had wanted to go with her at the time, to let the universe deal with the consequences on its own for once. But someone had to stay behind and seal it.

Anger rose within him. He was finished being the savior of Earth. He had lived too long, seen too much, lost too many. If they wanted to be invaded or conquered or destroy themselves, who was he to stand in their way? His rage mounted as he realized what was in his hand. Rose’s blanket. A few loose photos he had gathered from the Tyler flat stuck out from his pocket. Mental images of his lost soulmate flooded him until he realized their source. The TARDIS was feeding his instability. She was making him want to do anything, no matter how destructive, to get back to Rose.

“But why now, old girl?” he asked. “You’ve never let me through before. What changed?”

The ship creaked as if to show her age. A piece of metal grating fell as the ship trembled and swayed.

“You’re not _that_ old,” the Doctor denied. “No, not yet. We have so much time left, you and me. I can’t lose you too.”

The ship pitched and shuddered. The Doctor felt something smooth and cold in his pocket. A chunk of TARDIS coral.

“I know what this means,” he pleaded. “Please don’t leave me. I need you.”

But the TARDIS flew on, straight through the void and on to the other side.

He landed on a cold, windy beach in Norway with just enough time to escape the burning time machine.

Locals would tell the story for generations of how a blue box on fire landed on the shore, how a man in a brown coat stumbled out and far away from the fire, how the explosion of the dead TARDIS could be felt halfway around the world. How the place known as Darlig Ulv Stranden was no more.

The Doctor was found half-conscious by the emergency team dispatched to the scene, but quickly released from medical care when no major injuries were found.

At the present, however, he became aware that he was lying down, but was no longer in the sand. Besides feeling like he had been through a hurricane on a life raft, which was essentially what he had done, he was in perfect health. Minus a few scratches.

He smelled food being prepared and sought out the source, bracing himself against the wall and hobbling down the stairs as if he hadn’t used his legs in a very long time.

“Ha! Hello there, sleepyhead,” a portly woman in an apron greeted him. He rubbed at his eyes and took in the room with his Time Lord senses in full gear. Except something felt strange inside his body. More than the loss of his TARDIS… Something he couldn’t quite place.

“Where am I?” he mumbled to the woman.

“My, he speaks!” She crowed. “You’re at the finest bed and breakfast this side of Bergen, if I do say so myself. I’m Anna, but most around her just call me Mama.”

“I’m the Doctor,” he introduced. “I’m trying to reach London.”

“Well, that will be a drive!” she chuckled. “Ah, I’m only joking, love. Zeppelins come by every two days. My son’s a pilot. He can give you a lift, free of charge, just to get you out of my way.” She winked to let him know she was only teasing about the last bit.

“Ah. Thank you. That’s very kind.”

“I do what I can for whatever the sea drags in, poor souls. Except you didn’t come by the sea, did ye?”

“Not exactly,” he affirmed with a tight nod. “However, it does appear I’ve lost my mode of transportation permanently.”

His voice caught at the grief in his soul. The coral thrummed in his mind, but the infant’s song was still a bittersweet reminder of his loss.

“Not to worry, love,” Mama Anna assured. “We’ll get you to London as sure as the zeppelin flies. If you don’t mind an old woman’s prying, what waits in England that would have you so far northeast of your target?”

The Doctor sighed and played with his wedding band. How long had it been for her, anyway? What would she say when she found out what he had done, or more accurately, what the TARDIS had done for him?

“What’s the date?” he asked instead of answering Mama Anna’s question.

“That’s right, you have been out of it for a week, haven’t you?” She lifted an eyebrow at his shocked expression. “Sorry, should have mentioned that. Here, this will catch you up on the latest.”

She handed him a newspaper from the kitchen table but kept her stare trained on him.

“It’s a pretty girl in London, isn’t it?” she inferred before catching a glimpse of the silver on his finger. “Ah. Your bride?”

The Doctor exhaled a soft “yeah,” but it was the utter desolation in his dark countenance that broke her heart.

“Tell Mama about it while you eat your soup,” she commanded and gestured to a seat at the table. “It is good for the spirit.”

He told her a sterilized version of their story: separated in their travels unwillingly, unable to reunite until now, his attempts to get back always ending in the wrong place. She assumed he meant re-routed flights and canceled trains. He didn’t correct her. She didn’t ask about the exploding blue box, for which he was grateful.

She did ask about the length of time they had been apart.

He didn’t know so he guessed from his Time Sense.

“A few months or so. We were only able to get a call through once.”

She nodded. “Mobiles do not work well in the north country.”

He went with her assumption, again, and continued.

“I have to get back to her. As soon as possible.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she promised.

But it was still two days of waiting. Days which he needed to rest and mourn his lost ship. She had given him the very best, until the end. And now, phoenix-like, she would be re-born from the small chunk in his pocket. The baby TARDIS coral was ready to begin the shutterfry process, the most energy intensive stage. Keeping her so close to his side seemed to accelerate her development rapidly. But still, he shouldn’t be this tired. His scratches should have healed by now. And why did his hearts feel so slow?

He laid back in bed and concentrated, his mind still fuzzy from the explosion.

_Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump._

A perfectly healthy pulse. For someone with a single, human heart, that is.

The perfectly human pulse sped up and yet, he couldn’t believe it. The TARDIS had – intentionally or as a side-effect of the explosion – at least partially used the chameleon arch on him. Which made sense with his symptoms. He must have been knocked unconscious from the pain. But she had graced him with the ability to remember it all and kept his mind intact. No John Smith, ordinary human, here. He was still the Doctor in every way. Every way but two.

  1.        He had no fully grown TARDIS because his had sacrificed herself with her dying breath to grant his strongest wish.
  2.        He was no longer biologically Gallifreyan. Which explained why the paramedics had let him go so easily. No two hearts. No respiratory bypass. He drew the obvious conclusion: no regeneration. His time was limited now in a way it had never been. This was it. One human life.



And if he only had one human life, he knew exactly how he wanted to spend it – by the side of Rose Tyler.

\-----

Two days worth of hearty meals from Mama Anna later, he was back to full strength, bursting with anticipation as he landed at Heathrow Zeppelin Port. When his pilot had found out who his passenger was going to visit, he declared his only airfare was an autograph from the heiress. The Doctor saw no reason Rose would object (judging from a planet they had landed on once where she was mistaken for a teen pop star) so he agreed and they were on their way.

Heathrow surprised him with an unexpected gift, as was becoming common on this endeavor. He only had to catch the headline of GLAM! Magazine for “an up-close look at the Vitex first lady’s party of the century” with a red-carpet-style shot of Jackie and Pete on the cover. A quick flip-through revealed where big event would be held and when… Tonight. In just a few hours.

“Allons-y,” the Doctor mused. He sonicked a cashpoint unashamedly (which was the trick to getting away with it) and headed for the nearest tux shop. He was going to crash Jackie Tyler’s birthday party for the second time in this universe.


	3. The Revelry of Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reunion at last! But how will they take each other's (major, life-altering) surprises?

Rose grumbled as she propped her swollen feet on the empty chair across from hers. The ballroom was abuzz with the latest music and gossip, which Rose normally wouldn’t have minded, but the place she really wanted to be right now didn’t require make up, a tightly pinned up-do, pinching shoes or an expensive dress designed to show off her maternal curves to the cameras. She lifted a hand and pulled her golden curls loose. They bounced down to her shoulders and she shook her mane, feeling gloriously freed from at least one aspect of this never-ending evening.

At least her mother and Pete looked happy, swaying on the dance floor. In fact, all the couples looked sickeningly happy. Even the two other “knocked up” young wives were giggling behind their perfectly manicured nails.

Rose, however, was so very tired. From her work at Torchwood, from her pregnancy, from her mother’s fretting about the party, from her months and months of missing _him_.

She surveyed the room as her heart ached the way it always did. Sometimes it hurt worse, though. She would catch herself saying something he would say. Using his illustrations to make a point. Even at night, he still haunted her dreams.

And apparently her waking hours as well now.

Standing in the doorway, pocketing his sonic and dropping a bundle of clothing to the floor, a very convincing ghost was gaping at her. She sat up straighter and stared right back. Despite being a figment of her imagination, he was breathing heavily as he made his way across the ballroom, hardly noticing as he cut right through the dance floor. He was close now, so close she could see the desperation in his face.

“You’re not real.” She shook her head as he stopped in front of her. “I’m dreaming again. Just like always.”

“You’re… pregnant,” he replied dumbly. He was too late. She had moved on, living a fantastic life without him. With someone else.

Rose broke out into a wide grin and stood with unnatural speed for someone of her state. She threw her arms around him as tight as her middle let her and kissed him soundly.

“I’m real,” he confirmed. “So very real. I’m here for good now.”

“Doctor,” she began, but her thrills of joy were quenched by one rather obvious necessary confession. “I lied to you.”

“What?” he choked out.

“I’m so sorry. I had to, but I’m still so very sorry. Do you forgive me?”

“For what, Rose?” He was struggling to grasp it all. Her in front of him, kissing him, but with a very prominent obstacle.

“For lying about the baby, you daft alien.” Her laugh released the tears building up and they flooded down her cheeks.

“The baby... This is the baby from the beach? How long has it been for you?”

“About four months since then. I’m six months along. I only found out just before Norway… I couldn’t tell you,” she implored. He was beginning to understand but needed to hear it from her lips. “I couldn’t let you regret for all those centuries that you had a son you could never meet.”

“A son!” The Doctor was dangerously close to tears now as well. “My? We have a?”

“Feel him,” she urged. She guided his hand to her middle where the little boy inside was dancing at the sound of his father’s voice. She gasped as a shimmering warmth in her mind sprang to life. The Doctor’s tears were flowing now, but no words would form. He swallowed repetitively and sent her an “I love you” through their bond.

It had been so long, the sensation threatened to overwhelm her, but he held her steady in his arms. The real shock was the burst of joy she felt from her child’s mind.

“That’s him,” the Doctor mumbled into her hair as he drew her closer. “That’s our boy.”

Rose threaded her hands through his hair and kissed him again, earning the amused glances of party guests. She didn’t care. Nothing else mattered. He was here, as he said, “for good.”

“How?” she asked, pulling back. “You said it was impossible.”

“Oh my precious wife, you know me better than to listen when I say something is impossible."

“I didn’t listen. I’ve got a project at the office to show you. But that’s a story for later. Tell me how?”

A shadow fell over his pure delight, and he breathed her name. He traced a finger over her cheek, her lips, down her neck, recommitting to memory every inch.

“The TARDIS is gone. Well, not completely. She left us her baby too,” he explained softly, pulling the coral from his pocket. “Two promises of new life tonight. She was dying, so she brought me here, gave us this.”

“What do you mean gone? She _can’t_ die.” Rose’s heart sank. She loved that ship and thought of it as her true home. The two had shared a connection that lasted long after Bad Wolf was gone.

“She’s gone, Rose. She burned up upon crossing the Void. I got out just before the explosion.”

“Oh god, that’s what that was? It was all over the news a week ago or more. Broke windows, downed power lines. It was a disaster. Work was hell trying to figure it out. We sent a team to Norway… to…”

“The beach. It’s gone too now.” He rubbed his ear lobe exactly the way she remembered.

“You’ve been here over a week?”

“In a healing coma for the first seven days, followed by a few days of recovery while awake. I’m… Rose, I’m not fully a Time Lord anymore.”

“Of course you are. You’re right here. You’re still you.”

“I’m still me, minus a few parts. Notice anything different?” He nodded to her hands on his chest which she realized had made their way under his lapels, covering where his two hearts should have been. She leaned in and listened through their bond. Only one heartbeat pounded beneath her palms.

“No respiratory bypass either. And there’s one other very, very important thing you understand.”

“What, Doctor?”

“No regeneration. One human life.”

“You’ll grow old at the same time as me?”

“Yes, if you’ll still have me.”

She kissed him again, more fervently this time.

“I love you,” she replied.

His “I love you, too” was (as usual) cut off. His mother-in-law was shrieking and pulling him in for a bear hug. Rose let him go and beamed as her mum exclaimed her surprise and how late he was coming back and didn’t he know how rude it was to not find one’s way across universes for six whole months while one’s wife was pregnant?

“I’ve missed you too, Jackie,” he chuckled and winked at Rose. Jackie turned to catch her daughter positively glowing.

“Oh my,” Jackie sighed between bouts of hysterics. “This is the best birthday present ever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you’re wondering, yes, he sees her just in time for the first paragraph, which is why it’s there. ;) Hope you all enjoyed! <3


End file.
